On July 15, 2015, the luxury liner Diamond Princess stopped at Aomori, and our SGH class students acted as interpreters for foreign passengers as volunteers. The students also conducted questionnaire surveys to collect data for their project research.

　During the lecture of the previous week, the students learned the points to keep in mind as an interpreter, but it seemed more difficult than they had expected, because the English pronunciation of the passengers varied. The students conducted lots of surveys in English, too.

　Three female students guided an old married couple, who wanted to buy a Japanese national flag, to a shop in a 15-minute walk. There wasn’t a flag of a favorable size for them, but the couple seemed to enjoy talking with the students on the way to the shop. They said, “The girls are really wonderful! We had a good time with them.” We hope they will remember visiting Aomori as a good memory.

　We thank all those who cooperated, especially Aomori Port Internationalization Conference (APIC), Aomori City Government, The Nippon Foundation, and Aomori International Relations Volunteer Association (AIVA).

SGH class students acted as interpreters for foreign passengers as volunteers.